Tales of a spinner

Cool Spindles for a Great Cause (pls. read!)

The Moment of Inertia? Most of us spindlers look at a spindle and see it’s beauty, look at the length of the shaft, the shape of the whorl and consider the moment of inertia… What? Don’t run in fear. You don’t need to understand the physics or calculus formulas that explain whether a spindle rotates fast or slow to enjoy spinning different fibers… …but certain spindle makers, such as mathematics professor Neal Brand not only understands the moment of inertia, he applies it to his spindle-making. And, what better than a real-life example to teach his students? Calculus students were challenged to design a spindle with the same moment of inertia as Neal’s well known Tibetans. Neal turned each student’s design on his lathe (total of 7) and posted them for sale on Ebay — all proceeds go to a math scholarship fund at the University of North Texas! Neal is listing each of the seven spindles one at a time, with bidding on the first spindle ending this Sunday! To read full descriptions and bid on these beauties, go to Ebay.com and type “Neal Brand Spindles” (or link: Neal Brand_student_listings) And don’t be afraid to look at the shaft, the shapes of the whorls, the different woods and beauty of each Tibetan — rest safe the moment of inertia was well-taken care…considered, calculated and applied to each cool spindle design: ~~~~~ Remember bidding on the first spindle posted will end on Sunday — so, don’t miss out on a one-of-a-kind spindle, turned by Tibetan-master Neal Brand based on designs his students created based on the moment of inertia. Thank you!